


Fief Tirragen

by pallysuune



Series: The Son of Tirragen [3]
Category: Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Squint and you might see some Alex/Alanna, mostly just an excuse for me to think about Tirragen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-16 07:43:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21032699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pallysuune/pseuds/pallysuune
Summary: Alex has been away from home for a long time. He needs to take a trip back to see to things and Alanna decided to come along for the ride.





	Fief Tirragen

**Author's Note:**

> Another little slice of the series taking a look at Alex and what might have been. I'm glad you guys have likes it so far and hope you enjoy this installment too.

Tirragen was situated snugly in the middle of the eastern hill country of Tortall. Once, it had been the home to tribes of fierce, independent warriors, who hunted and fished, and created their fields and orchards, and always remained a sort of _otherness_ from those of the western Tortall. They held their own gods, spoke their own language, and had their own customs. People from Corus called them barbarians, once. It wasn’t quite that bad any longer, but there was still a sense of divide between those of the hills and those of the rest of the kingdom.

Generations back, that refusal to conform earned the hillmen the ire of King Jasson, who leveled harsh taxes on them, taking portions of all their crop yields in the name of the Crown. It took a careful hand to keep the fief stable through that.

Lord Dominique of Tirragen was _not_ a careful hand, in the slightest. He was concerned more with wine and women than his fief. He paid very little attention to the difficulties of his people, and wracked up a good deal of debt both paying for his alcohol, and bringing in grain during bad harvests, with little care for long term solutions to the harvest problems. Lady Elaine of Tirragen was content to turn a blind eye to her husband’s affairs, spending most of her time in the library, sewing by the light of the large windows there that overlooked the lake.

Alex had grown up more with the attentions of the servants than his parents. He never wanted his father’s attention - that usually led to something painful. The man believed firmly that boys learned best through pain, and with how frequently drunk he was, he forgot his own strength. So Alex was far more willing to spend his time with the servants, with Lucia, the cook’s daughter who was only a year younger than him, and with Millie, her mother the cook. The steward, Gendry, was in charge of his schooling, but he very quickly learned all the man could teach him. He became a restless young man, bored and alone most of the time. He learned to swim in the waters of Lake Tirragen, climbed apple trees, and pretended to fence against scarecrows until farmers came to chase him out of their fields. The farmers hated his father, and so they didn’t much care for him either. Petulant child that he was then, he didn’t like them, either.

It looked so different, and yet completely the same as Alex paused at the top of the hill, looking down at the keep and it’s tiny, sparse town.

Had the fields always looked so sparse this time of year? Wheat should have been as high as his shoulder, and yet the rows looked short and patchy. In the distance, beyond them, he could see the first of the orchards, heavy with leaves but not yet with fruit. He passed by a worn, weather-rotten fence and a drooping scarecrow, it’s burlap face bleached bone white by the sun. He didn’t remember them looking so eerie in his childhood. The wall surrounding the town looked chipped and worn. Very clearly it had not been maintained well. Most of the shops he passed on his way up to the keep were empty, and, of the others that weren’t, only a few were actually open. He saw a blacksmith’s, with heavy smoke rising from the chimney, a general merchant, a bakey. There was an inn, near the inner wall separating the keep from the town. Alex passed it all, feeling more and more uneasy with each moment that passed, like he was riding through a ghost town. Riding just behind him, Alanna of Trebond, his companion, his friend, and, in some ways, his jailer, looked just as uneasy as he felt.

As he came into the courtyard, he heard someone at last, a pleased voice calling out from around the corner of the keep. “Lord Alexander!” His head twisted around just in time to see a young woman come rushing around the corner.

Though Alex, like his father, had the dark complexion that marked him as hillman through and through, Louisa was delicate and fair, with freckled cheeks and blonde hair, drawn back into a tight braid. She came over to him as he slid down from the saddle, and reached to take the reins of his little mare. “It’s been so long! And you’ve brought a friend with you!” He gave her a tight smile and nodded. Alanna’s smile was far more natural and easy as she, too, slid down from her Moonlight’s back. Still holding the reins, Louisa dipped a little curtsy. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

If she thought it strange Alex was riding with a woman with a sword and traveling leathers, she didn’t say so.

Alex reached for his traveling pack, but Louisa batted his hand away. “We’ll take care of that. Master Gendry is out at the orchard, but he should return soon. Until then, you go should go see Mama in the kitchen while we get rooms ready for you. She’ll be happy to see you.” She smiled widely at him, clearly happy to have Alex back, even though he was so rarely in Tirragen. She didn’t wait for him to answer her, either, before she took up Moonlight’s reins and began to lead both of the horses toward the stables.

It was pretty clear who was in charge of the keep. And it wasn’t him. He shot a frown at Alanna, a silent warning not to comment on it, and received only a small smirk in return.

Lousia said her mother would be glad to see him. He wondered if she would, even as he headed toward the kitchen door around the back of the keep, the one the servants used. He used to sneak out that door as a boy. It led to a little kitchen garden, with herbs and vegetables, and a row of blackberry brambles that he used to sneak fruit from until his fingers were stained purple with their juice. It was all just as he remembered it. So was the small, warm kitchen, with it’s great hearth and shelves of food stuffs. Millie was at a low table, chopping vegetables when she saw him. Even she looked much the same - plump, weathered, and just as fair as her daughter, except her hair had abandoned blonde in favor of silver and there were fresh crinkles at the corners of her eyes.

“Well now, what’s this? Our wayward Lord Alexander?” she said, rising and wiping her hands on her apron. “Come over here in front of the fire and let me get a look at you.” Obediently, Alex moved to stand before the fire, letting Millie fuss at him, plucking at his tunic, reaching up to tug at his overlong, curly hair, taking his chin and turning it this way and that. He finally batted her hand away with a slight smile. “You look more like your father each time I see you,” she went on. Alex smiled even though he was not at all certain that was a compliment.

“I’m glad to see you’re well, Millie.”

All the while, Alanna lingered near the wall, watching the two of them with a small smile on her face, soft and wondering. She’d never gotten to see this side of Alex, not even when they were children at the palace together. He’d always been guarded, somewhat secretive, and she felt like she was getting to see some part of him that no one else had ever really been privy to before.

And then Millie turned her attention to her, motioning Alanna to come over to the fire with a brisk motion of her hand that brooked no argument. The knight’s expression slipped sheepish, as she came over. Alex shot her smirk as he stepped away. “Millie, this is Sir Alanna of Trebond,” he introduced, moving to step behind the cook.

“_Sir_?” Millie puffed. Alanna took a breath, preparing for some confrontation. It happened often, so many people, women especially, thinking she was unladylike, improper, or some such nonsense for getting her shield, and Alanna frowned, preparing for that familiar argument. But then Millie nodded, eyeing her up and down appraisingly. “Good for you. It’s about time for a woman to start doing what she wants instead of what they tell ‘er to.”

Alanna deflated slightly, confusion crossing her expression as she glanced over at Alex. He just looked continued to smirk faintly.

Millie fussed over them both for a moment longer, before giving them both some biscuits with apple and honey, and shooed them off to the rooms that had been prepared for them. While Alanna was given one of the keep’s few guest rooms, and Alex was settled into the Lord’s master bedroom. It felt strange being in there. No one had been since his father had died, and he’d never actually considered taking the room as his own. Much like the rest of the fief, the keep was a little uncared for, a little rundown, but the servants who lived there had kept it up better than the outer wall, at the very least.

It was sad, really, to see how much Tirragen had gone downhill. And he wasn’t entirely sure how to fix it. He would need to look at the ledgers before he left again, but he was fairly sure there simply wasn’t enough money in the fief’s coffers to handle all the issues that there were. His father had put them too far into debt before he died. He could petition the crown to raise some of the taxes placed on them, but, with his current reputation at court, it was anyone’s guess what might happen with that.

He spent the rest of his day trying to find ways to help the keep. When the steward, Gendry, returned, he met with him, talking through everything that had been going on and anything that might need his attention. He got ledgers of all the incomes and expenses and even took his dinner in his room, touching barely any of it as he focused all his attention on trying to make the numbers work for him in some way. He was good with mathematics, but even he couldn’t make money appear from thin air.

“Alex?”

He raised his head, glancing toward the door. Alanna stood there, lit by the light in the hallway. How long she’d been standing there, he had no idea. He sighed, rubbing his eyes as he sat back in the tall desk chair. “Sorry, I didn’t intend to just abandon you.” But he had somewhat, too distracted by his duties upon returning.

She shrugged, strolling into the room, glancing around briefly as she moved to the side of the desk. “It’s fine. Seems like there’s a lot to do here.”

Alex hummed, looking through the pages and shuffling them again. Gendry was doing what he could, but there was just so much mess left behind by the late Lord Dominique, repairing it all was going to be a lot longer process than even Alex could devote. “Think the King will be putting on any tournaments any time soon?” he asked Alanna absentmindedly. He could really use the purse prize that came from winning one to help the fief.

Alanna just looked down at him for a minute, glancing over the papers, then reached over to nudge his shoulder gently. “Come on, staring at that isn’t doing you any good.”

She was right about that, no matter how he tried to spin the numbers, they didn’t change, and willing them to hadn’t helped him much so far. So he stretched, arms drawn over his head and back arched, with a quiet groan. “Care to spar?”

Alanna smiled. She might not be able to help much with Tirragen’s money issue, but at least she could help take his mind off things. “Only if you’re prepared to lose.”

Even though he was tired and frustrated with the state of the lordship dumped on his shoulders, he smirked faintly as he rose from his seat to lead her from the room. “Big words. Let’s see if you can live up to them.”


End file.
